My youngest enjoys his swimming and partakes in a local swimming club on a rather regular basis.  With the easing of lockdown in the UK, his club restarted a few weeks ago.  He was especially jubilant, his siblings were a little jealous (as it was hot and the pool looked so inviting) and we, as … [Read More...] about Pool palms

Many of us with school age children will have experienced the peculiar ‘delight’ of having to homeschool our children during lockdown.    For the majority of us, whose only stress used to involve the dropping off and picking up, ensuring their uniform was clean and fitted, together with … [Read More...] about The ‘joys’ and perils of homeschooling in lockdown.

Since the coronavirus pandemic started, we’ve all heard of how children are disproportionately protected from severe disease and then we started hearing that adult women were more protected than adult men from severe disease. [Guan WJ, Ni ZY, Hu Y, Liang WH, Ou CQ, et al. Clinical characteristics … [Read More...] about The downsides of being manly in COVID-19

At the time of writing, we are in a state of “eased” lockdown; things aren’t as strict as they have been but we should all still stay at home as much as we can and if we must go out, we should practice social distancing and stay 2 metres away from people who are not from our own household.  Time … [Read More...] about COVID toe

At the time of writing this blog, we are in the middle of lockdown with the prospect of possibly another 3-4 weeks of lockdown to continue.  We should all hopefully be observing the government advice of staying at home as much as possible, only venturing out once a day if we need to exercise, get … [Read More...] about Hand washing in a pandemic

Once upon a time we had one child and we enrolled him as a toddler in various activity clubs in the area to get him out and socialising with other toddlers and also to get me out and socialising with other mums.  I don’t think this is an uncommon thing in modern times.  Now we have … [Read More...] about Allergy to taekwondo

Dry January, Veganuary…, it’s been a bit of a quiet month for us with many an evening tucked up on the sofa watching a brief something on Netflix.  On the recommendation of certain work colleagues (and even the eldest of my children – blush!), we were directed towards a short Netflix series … [Read More...] about Advances in skin cancer chemoprevention

This is the month of Brexit, whereupon Boris Johnson can now pass the legislation required to implement his withdrawal agreement so that Britain can exit the European Union on January 31st.  Thereafter, trade agreements need to sorted out to ensure that goods and services can enter and leave … [Read More...] about Antibiotics in our food?

What did 2019 hold for you?  Was it a good year or a dreadful year?  For us, as I’m sure it has been for most people, it’s been a real mixed bag with highs and lows but you know, when there are hard times, it is always helpful to remember all the things that are precious and good in our … [Read More...] about Every cloud has a silver lining…

Having to do a talk to local GPs about rosacea does focus the mind somewhat on this pretty prevalent skin condition.  It was also helpful to see that the October 2019 issue of the British Journal of Dermatology had a study from Belgium on the condition. What is rosacea? Rosacea is … [Read More...] about What’s new in rosacea?

I remember as a child being warned by my mother and father not to get into cars driven by anyone other than the person designated to pick me up from school that day.  And I was most definitely warned to not get in any car driven by any strange men.  If any of you remember Roald Dahl’s … [Read More...] about The downside of being a villain

I recently had the pleasure of spending a morning observing one of my plastic surgical colleagues performing sentinel lymph node biopsy. What is a sentinel lymph node biopsy? This is a procedure used in cancer management, for example in breast cancer or in the case of dermatology, in the … [Read More...] about Go with the blue…

It is August.  It is the time of year when the vast majority of the nation is on holiday and probably jetting off to somewhere hot and sunny. Cancer Research UK also issued a press release on 18th July 2019 that melanoma skin cancer incidence rates have increased by 45% since 2004 with rates … [Read More...] about The forbidden fruit?

The May 2019 edition of the British Journal of Dermatology had an interesting paper on dermatological identifiers of underlying cardiac disease. [Maruthappu T, Posafalvi A, Castelletti S et al.  Loss-of-function desmoplakin I and II mutations underlie dominant arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy … [Read More...] about The usefulness of woolliness